One important principle in Sales

Okay so as we have talked about last week: People decide with logic AND emotion. People buy with emotions and justify it with logic. Emotion alone isn’t enough. It needs to have logical sense or can be justified logically.

In other words, we need to both satisfy the brains and the hearts. The same rule applies in selling. We need to satisfy both the brains and the hearts of the prospect before they finally decide to buy.

But now a new question emerges, how do we satisfy both the logic and the emotions of the prospect? How do we aim for both their brains and their hearts? How do we appease both logically and emotionally?

How do we make them feel certain and assured that what they are buying is the right product and that what they are going to do is the right decision?

Let’s first look at logic or how to appeal to their brains. To make prospect feel certain on a logical level, there should be a product-prospect fit, meaning the product fits the needs and the wants of the prospect AND that the prospect knows and understand this.

It should make sense logically for them to buy. It seems easy and simple right? Unfortunately, not so.

You see there are two problems here as we try to appease their brains. First, we assume we know the wants and needs of the prospect. We might assume what the needs and the wants of our prospects are but, in reality, what we know is just the tip of the iceberg.

Just think of it this way. Example you go and order Jollibee chicken-joy. Now, lets say that Jollibee branch had a customer survey and they asked you why you chose to eat chicken-joy today.

You might answer and say that because you like chicken-joy or that chicken-joy tastes good or that you feel chicken-joy is bang for the bucket.

In actuality, you might really enjoy chicken-joy or that you really like chicken-joy or that sulit talaga chicken-joy para sayo. But Imma make a wild guess that as much as you like or enjoy chicken-joy, that is not the only reason for you choosing chicken-joy.

Heck, as you order, you might actually be deciding to whether get the chicken-joy or the burger-steak. So much is going on as you make the buying decision. That reason you stated na masarap ang chicken-joy is just the tip of the iceberg or just an excuse. Deep down, there is so much going on as you make the buying decision.

In other words, there is so much going on as we make buying decisions. The wants and needs that prospect says might just be the tip of the iceberg. And the worse part here is that most of the time, they will never tell us the real want or needs that they have.

The other problem here is that we assume that prospects fully understand what we have presented. We assume that they have fully grasped what we have shared with them. And so we feel confident that they will understand why they need to buy what we are selling.

But guess what? Most of them don’t. It’s not that they are dumb or we are dumb or that we have not presented well. Rather, we have a different worldview than our prospect’s. Iba yung pinagdaanan mo kumpara dun sa kliyente mo. Iba yung alam mo kumpara dun sa kliyente mo. Magkaiba tayo ng iniisip at pag-iisip.

Not only that but there is so much noise going on. We don’t mean as in maingay na literal. What we mean here is there is a clutter in the mind of our prospects. Maraming iniisip ang kliyente. Hindi lang ikaw. At the same time, sometimes we have the curse of knowledge.

Marami tayong sinasabi sa kliyente na akala naten naiintindihan nila pero hindi pala or sa sobra dami nateng sinasabi, nagiinformation overload na ang kliyente.

So as you can see, it’s more complicated than what we thought. It’s not just merely matching the needs and the wants of our prospect with our solution and letting them understand that.

So how do we overcome that? How do we find out what the real needs and wants of the prospect are for us to be able to match our product to their need? And how do we make sure that they truly understand it?

The answer to the first question is simple: probing. The only way we can know the needs and wants of a prospect is through asking intelligent questions. This can be summarized through: seek to understand and then to be understood.

For them to understand why they need our product, we must first understand why they are there in the first place.

And in sales, only one weapon has been can help us understand their situation and that is probing- or asking relevant question.

But wait, aren’t we too nosy? Hindi ba parang masyado na tayong nangingialam sa buhay nila?

The answer to them is it actually really depends on how we ask. If we ask just for the sake of asking, then we will come off as nosy.

But if we ask for the reason that we want to understand their situation, then chances are we will not come off as very nosy. Because we are really interested in knowing them and their needs.

Now, are we able to perfectly grasp their situation through probing? The answer is no. Yet through probing, we know more about their situation that we did previously. 4 is not 7 (7 as they say is the perfect number). But 4 is better than 0 or 1. Knowing more is better than knowing less.

And here is the other dilemma: some industries are fast-moving and do not have that opportunity to probe the prospect. In those cases, what do we do?

Simple. Generalize the problem that the market is facing. Yes, different people have different reasons for buying. Yet when we compile all the reasons for buying, there will be a general reason that will pop out. For example, insurance. The reason you bought and the reason I bought might be different, but there is one thing we want: financial assurance if something happens.

And we use that general idea or problem and start with it. With this generalized problem or need, we now have more idea on what made our prospect look at our product and present our case as the solution to that generalized problem.

Of course, this is not perfect yet as a song that featured Taylor Swift says, 2 is better than 1. So yes, seek to understand and then to be understood. That is how we overcome our first huddle. Next week, we will be talking about how we can make sure people understand what we are trying to say.

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